“12 Angry Men” Essay The movie "12 Angry Men" focuses on a jury's decision on a capital murder case. A 12-man jury is sent to begin decisions on the first-degree murder trial of an 18-year-old Latino accused of stabbing his father to death, where a guilty verdict means an automatic death sentence. The case appears to be open-and-shut: The defendant has a weak alibi; a knife he claimed to have lost is found at the murder scene; and several witnesses either heard screaming, saw the killing or the boy fleeing the scene. Eleven of the jurors immediately vote guilty; only Juror No. 8 (Mr. Davis) casts a not guilty vote. At first Mr. Davis' bases his vote more so for the sake of discussion after all, the jurors must believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty. As the movie unfolds, the story quickly becomes a study of the jurors' complex personalities and how they deal with argumentation within groups and critical thinking. This allows Mr. Davis to try and convince the other jury members that the defendant might not be guilty by using cooperative argumentation, claim, evidence, warrant, facts, etc. In the beginning of the movie a jury is assembled to decide the fate of an 18 year old boy who has been charged with murdering his father. The jury assembles into a hot stuffy room where they can argue about whether the boy is guilty or not. Argumentation is used in the jury, where they must use critical thinking to advocate proposals, examine ideas, and influence one another to come to a judgment on the case. Juror No. 8 Mr. Davis tries to use cooperative argumentation which is when a group interacts with one another and make the best assessment or decision on a problem and in this case it is the decision on whether the 18 year old boy should be put to death or not. Mr. Davis has to be the first on to use critical thinking in where you analyze and evaluate what you have read, seen, or heard to arrive at a justified conclusion or decision. In the
